Power Rangers: Storm Surge
by ChibiDawn23
Summary: Four young people take up the mantle of Power Rangers to turn the tide against an oceanic threat named Syrena from the Marianas Trench attacking the islands of Hawaii. Rated for language. CH 6: Relationship drama haunts Emily as she deals with disappearing students from her brother Jack's high school class.
1. Creatures From the Deep

**Disclaimer: So the characters actually _are_ all mine, save one in the next chapter (although technically, she is too...ugh, copyright law is so complicated!) But obviously, anything actually from the Power Rangers franchise that makes an appearance isn't mine, if anything actually does.**

**Author's Note:**** So I have to apologize, Ed the Plot Bunny just hasn't been anywhere near PR in _forever_. There was zero inspiration, my brain and Ed's brain has been saturated with musicals and Broadway lately (there's so much good stuff goin' on in the theatre world right now!). But then off a chat with my friend Sir Perfluous, I decided to have a go at an original Ranger series. Which is quite terrifying.**

* * *

**Prologue: **_Creatures of the Deep_

_Marianas Trench  
Challenger Deep  
10,984 meters_

It was pitch black. It could have been the deepest part of space, or the darkest cave, but those would have been much easier to explore. In the darkness of the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Marianas Trench in the Western Pacific, some of the world's most amazing and terrifying creatures exist, uniquely adapted to the conditions of the deepest spot on Earth. Here, Mount Everest could stand in the bottom, and still be covered by over a mile's worth of ocean. Mysteries still abound in the unexplored depths.

One of those mysteries was about to come to light.

A strange object floated through the darkness, its' halogen headlights rudely splitting the blackness of the Deep as it continued its lazy descent to the bottom of the fissure. Inside were two creatures who did _not_ belong in the Trench.

"The time is 7:26 AM Hawaiian Standard Time," Dr. Kevin McCoy spoke into the recorder. "Current depth-"

"10, 984," Chuck Crowder supplied helpfully, looking at the instrumentation panel in the dim light.

"10, 984 meters," Kevin confirmed. "Deploying _Leo_." He pressed a couple of buttons and gripped the joystick. Out the seven-inch porthole, a flash of yellow bubbled by in the pitch black of Earth's deepest point. This was _Leo_, a seafloor mapping robot. _Leo _bobbed up and down as Kevin toyed with the joystick. Then, he punched a command on the program for autopilot, and _Leo_ disappeared into the inky darkness, off to do its' job of seafloor mapping. "_Leo_ deployed," he said aloud for the audio recorder's benefit. "Today we're covering grid 108."

Chuck crossed it off with a red X on the laminated grid map on his clipboard. Then, he reclined as much as he could in the two-man submersible. He stared up at the ceiling of their ride, the _Rose. _The oval-shaped sub was nothing to look at- a silver, Airstream trailer-looking thing with a conical hatch like a regular submarine, three small portholes, and two large instrument panels with monitors. One bank of screens followed _Leo_, their undersea ROV (remote-operated vehicle), and mined and cataloged the data it had been collecting over the past 48 hours. The other monitored _Rose_ itself- oxygen levels, depth, pressure, temperature. Chuck crossed his arms behind his head. "Another day of black smokers and tubeworms."

Kevin chuckled at the nonexistent thrill in his colleague's tone. "What were you expecting when you volunteered to come down here with me?" he asked. Chuck, a data analyst, normally sat topside on the research vessel _Paxton_, compiling data on the Trench and sending it back to the Aloha Marine Research Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Chuck tapped the paperback on the console in front of him. Kevin glanced at it. The title was one he knew well; it had just been adapted into a popular new movie. "Sorry to burst your bubble," Kevin told him. "That guy's science isn't science…it's just science fiction. We're the biggest thing down here right now."

"How can you stand it?" Chuck asked him, tossing a tennis ball back and forth. It _thocked_ off the ceiling and thudded back into his hand. "We've been down here for two days, and the only exciting thing that's happened was when _Leo_ got snagged on that smoker."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Be lucky that's all that's happened," he admonished him. "If something _does_ get exciting down here, it's usually not a good thing." He tapped the porthole. "One crack in the Plexi and the pressure outside crushes us like a Mountain Dew can. One snapped cable, and we're seven miles underwater. By the time they get another submersible down here and repair the cable…" He pointed to the O2 gauge, which was currently hovering at 85%, then dropped his finger abruptly down to zero. "Well, then things would get _really_ interesting. You might wanna put that ball down before you break something."

Chuck's face had gone passive and pale, almost glowing in the dim light, his mouth formed into a small _o_. He rolled the ball around with his fingers, before letting it drop to the floor, where it rolled under the console.

Kevin burst out laughing. He pushed his glasses up on his nose as Chuck's face went from horrified to pissed in a split second. "You sonofabitch," Chuck rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I'm telling your wife when we get back up where there's Wifi". He slugged Kevin in the shoulder, but Kevin didn't even flinch. His body had gone rigid and he was nearly nose to nose with the _Leo_ video monitor. Chuck watched his partner tap the monitor once, twice, mumbling to himself.

"Kev?" Chuck asked him. His partner said nothing; he was staring intently at the video footage, rewinding and playing it back. "Hey, man. Quit screwing around-"

The whole submersible jolted.

Kevin's glasses slammed against his face as he hit the monitors. Chuck dropped from his chair onto the floor. "What in the _hell_ was that?" he demanded as the movement ceased and he struggled to right himself. "Kevin?" He looked over at him. His partner was slumped over the monitors, blood dripping from his nose and forehead.

A disembodied voice crackled to life over the speakers. "_Rose, this is Paxton topside. We've got a couple of warning lights up here. Everything okay?"_

Chuck was feeling for Kevin's pulse. Steady, but… He reached for the radio and hammered the button. "_Paxton, _This is _Rose_! Something…I dunno, something _hit_ us!"

"_What's your status_?" the reply came immediately back.

"Dr. McCoy is unconscious. All other levels reading…" Chuck took a quick glance at the instruments. "Normal." He frowned. _What the hell is going on…_ He shook his head. "Requesting permission to get the hell out of here?"

"_Granted_. See you topside."

Chuck gently tapped Kevin on the arm. "Kev….hey. Wake up!"

The doctor didn't move. Chuck painstakingly set him in his chair and patched him up as best he could with the basic first aid kit they had onboard. Then, he felt a shudder as the cable went taut and started pulling them painstakingly slow, miles back up to the surface.

He had totally forgotten about _Leo_.

* * *

The little ROV settled gently on the seafloor, disrupting a tubeworm feeding on the mineral-rich deposits erupting from the black smokers. It looked alien, even in this alien world, with its fluorescent yellow paint.

A figure glided through the thick, smoky seafloor. _Leo'_s camera was still operational, even though it wasn't being steered. Had Chuck Crowder looked at his video feed during the slow trek back to the _Paxton_, he would have noticed a pair of luminous green eyes in the darkness, studying the robot.

Her name was Syrena. An ancient guardian of the seas, she was how the Filipino legends of _sirena_ had emerged. Bright white, almost translucent skin that glowed in the darkness of the Challenger Deep. Green eyes with almost no pupil. Talon-like fingernails, with a deep purple tail that more resembled a shark than a mermaid. Syrena had adapted to the conditions of the Trench, being forced to flee there from the surface centuries prior.

Syrena prodded the ROV with a pointed, claw-like fingernail. Man had come once again to the Deep. She was satisfied that the jolt she'd given them had sent them fleeing for the surface.

But she was not satisfied with just that, not anymore.

She had heard these men, their voices echoing off the strange silvery machine and into the Deep. How there were pollutants in the Deep. Man-made objects and chemicals, permeating her world and poisoning her creatures.

For centuries, the Deep had remained untouched by man, save for the foolish few who dared to venture down with their machines. But now, it seemed, the surface world and the surface dwellers had left a permanent mark.

_And so_, she thought to herself, _perhaps it is time I left an indelible mark on them as well_.

Syrena took her tail to the bright yellow ROV, brushing away the black smoke and sand until she could make out the blue lettering on the side of it.

A.M.R.I  
HONOLULU HAWAII

She flicked her tail, a vicious kick, sending _Leo_ tumbling through the water and into a fissure.

_Hawaii_, Syrena mused. _I think I'll start there._

* * *

**Author's Note II:**** Yes, those _were_ shameless _Titanic_ references. Yes, Chuck is reading _Meg_ by Steve Alten, and the book is WAY better than the movie. Yes, Syrena _does_ understand English even though she's a Filipino mythical creature that lives seven miles underwater, because magic and Power Rangers reasons. And yes, she _does_ kind of resemble Karai from the 2012 TMNT. Oh, and yes, I got permission from Sir Perfluous to set my series in Hawaii and I promised not to infringe too much on his series _Power Rangers Oceania_, which if you haven't read, you should, because it's awesome.**

**I think that covers it. :) Constructive criticism is usually warranted and always appreciated.**


	2. The Oncoming Storm

_**Chapter One**__: The Oncoming Storm_

Landon Ketterling adjusted the lapel mike on his bright red polo shirt and smiled brightly at the crowd of schoolkids in front of him, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Aloha!" he greeted them. "Mahalo for coming to the Aloha Marine Research Institute today."

Twenty-one second graders chorused, "Aloha!" back at him. Landon clapped his hands together. "Well, let's get started then, huh?" He walked them down a set of stairs and swiped his badge at a keycard entry point. "This is our laboratory entrance," he explained. "This is where all of our important science discoveries are being, well, discovered!" He leaned down, as if he was letting them in on a big secret. "It's really important that you do exactly as I say and keep your hands to yourselves. There are scientists working, and we don't want to disturb them. The last class that came down here almost got turned into plankton."

He paused. His audience had gone quiet. Twenty-one faces were staring slackjawed at him. _Second graders, Landon. Sarcasm- not a thing. _"I'm kidding," he assured them, and saw several of them start to visibly breathe again. "But we do need to be quiet. When we get to the biology lab, a friend of mine will be there to answer questions, okay?"

He got a couple nods. A few of them, Landon could tell, still weren't sure what to make of the tall biologist that was acting as their tour guide. "Awesome. Let's start!"

* * *

About a half-mile from AMRI's man-made lagoon, a crowd was gathered on the beach, all eyes staring out into the ocean. A young woman on a bright pink surfboard had just gone over the top of a large wave and was riding down the face of it. The waves had been unusually high the past few days, even by a surfer's standards, and Kealey Shepard was taking full advantage of them. She shoved upwards, going back up the center of the wave. _Come on_, she thought, willing the top of the wave to start curling over itself. She was in the zone today, her GoPro clipped into place. She wanted one good barrel today to post online. Her corporate sponsor, Storm Chargers, had given her permission to film the web series as long as their logo was prominent in the video somewhere.

Kealey grinned, looking down at her board. The SC logo was front and center on her board. "Let's do this," she said aloud, noticing a change in the water. _Something's coming_, she grinned, cutting back down the face of the wave just in time to see the top start to curl over itself.

* * *

On the beach, Nakoa Kino had one eye on the Youtube livestream playing on his iPhone, and one eye out on the water. "She is so cool," he gushed to brunette standing next to him.

"It would be cooler if you'd watch the real thing and not the phone," Emily Rice countered as she watched Kealey drop into the barrel. She shivered and pulled the hood of her white University of Hawaii sweatshirt over her head. "It's gotta be cold out there," she said. "How is it I'm farther south than California but I feel colder?"

"Doesn't look like it's bothering her any," Nakoa countered, and then cheered as the pink board emerged from the wave and she cut back down, finally splashing down. Kealey's head popped out of the water and she gave the crowd a wave. The small crowd cheered wildly.

Nakoa put his phone in his pocket. "She's so cool."

"I dare you to go ask for her autograph," Emily prodded.

Nakoa flushed. "No way. Not happening."

"You wuss," Emily sighed, shoving her hands in the kangaroo pocket. "You talked me out of doing homework to come down here; the least you could do is make it interesting."

* * *

At the "Whoa!" from the crowd, Landon allowed himself a smile. _Finally_, he'd gotten his group's attention. They were staring at the skeleton of a creature with protruding jaws that was mounted on a wall display. Landon pointed to it. "Neat, huh? This is a goblin shark. It lives in deep water. It's what we call a living fossil," he explained. "Meaning that it's very, _very_ old, like, _millions of years_. When it gets near its' prey, it's jaws actually extend out from his mouth-" Landon outlined the jawline of the shark with his finger- "and then it catches it!" He snapped his hands at a rapt little boy in the front row, who jumped and blinked up at him.

"Cool!" he pronounced, and Landon grinned.

A loud rap on the glass window behind them made Landon jerk, and he looked over the top of the kids to see a blonde woman waving frantically at him. He frowned. The blonde was his supervisor and AMRI's chief marine biologist. He did _not_ like the look on her face. "Hey, guys, let's do this," he improvised. "Let's give you guys a minute or two for a bathroom break and a drink, and then we'll go outside if it isn't raining and check out the lagoon." He locked eyes with one of the teachers, who nodded, ushering the kids toward the restrooms, and then he ducked inside the lab behind him. "Boss? What's wrong?" Landon asked as the door clicked close behind him.

Dr. Hannah Johnson's face was etched with concern. "Landon, I just got a ship to shore call from the _Paxton_."

"Is Dr. McCoy all right?" Landon asked immediately. He knew her husband had been out in the Challenger Deep with the research team. Kevin McCoy was the chief scientist and brainchild behind AMRI. He had been out on an expedition to the Marianas Trench for about two weeks. Landon hadn't seen any of the data being returned, but he couldn't wait to hear about it when Dr. McCoy got back.

"There was some kind of accident with the sub," Dr. Johnson explained to him. "They're hauling the submersible up now."

"Are you okay?" Landon asked her.

She lifted her shoulders and let them fall. "I'm…dealing. It's hard with him being so far away. I was hoping you might be able to hustle this group out of here a little early so you could take my place in here, finish with this experiment. I'd like to see if I can get a plane ticket to Manila, meet the research team."

Landon glanced out the windows. The gray sky was graying more, and the palm trees outside were starting to bend a bit more in the breeze. "The weather's pretty crummy anyway," he said. "I think we could skip the lagoon."

"I'd appreciate it. I'm sorry," she told him.

He shook his head. "No, don't be," Landon assured her. "It's fine. Let me just-"

"Dr. Johnson!" One of the lab techs wheeled their chair over and waved her cell phone in their direction. "Someone just shot this video snorkeling down near the beach."

Dr. Johnson snagged the phone out of her hand, looking at the video on a social media site. Her face went pale, paler than it already was.

"Dr. Johnson?" Landon pressed. He was starting to wonder if he was going to have to catch her when she passed out.

Wordlessly, she handed over the phone. "It seems today is our day for bad news," she informed him.

Landon watched the video. "What…in the _hell_…"

* * *

_Moments before..._

Something yanked on Kealey's surfboard, towing her backwards by her ankle leash. "Hey!" she yelped, jerking her foot forward. She turned around to see if she'd snagged it on something. There was a bright glow of white under the water, and then she felt herself being pulled under.

Someone screamed on the beach, and Nakoa and Emily paused in their walk back up to the street. The two of them turned around to see someone screaming and frantically pointing out toward the water. "She went under!"

"She's not coming back up!" someone else yelled.

Nakoa and Emily exchanged a look. Then, Nakoa was peeling off his shirt and running at full tilt back down the beach, while Emily scrambled for her phone to dial 911. "Nakoa!" she yelled, listening to the ringer. "What are you _doing?_"

Nakoa's feet hit the water and as soon as he felt it was deep enough, dove under, pushing himself to get out to where Kealey Shepard had been pulled under. There were no riptides in this area, and she was an experienced surfer and swimmer. _Something had to have gone way wrong_, he thought as he paddled furiously.

Then he pulled himself up short, his eyes widening.

Marching through the water were…well, Nakoa didn't know _what_ the hell they were. They were bright, bioluminescent white, glowing in the murky water being stirred up by the wind and waves. Tendrils snaked out around a ball-like body. There had to have been twenty or thirty of them, all making their way toward the beach. One of them, he noticed, had a tendril firmly wrapped around Kealey Shepard's leg, keeping her under the water even as she struggled against it.

_Holy_….Nakoa didn't know what to do. Too much longer and he and Kealey would both drown. They weren't that far from shore. _If I can get her out of there…_they might have a chance in the shallower water.

_But we're running out of time!_

* * *

Hannah Johnson swiped her keycard and pulled open the door of her private lab. Landon had never been inside it before- the area was off limits to everyone but her and her husband. He cautiously waited in the doorway as she sat down at her desk and reached under it. He heard a beep and a whirr of a motor. Then, she emerged, a shiny black case in her hands. She stood up, rushing over to Landon and pressing it into his hands. "Take this to the beach. _Now_."

Landon frowned. "I-what?" he gasped. "What _is_ this, Doc?"

"A pet project of Kevin-Dr. McCoy's- and mine. Take the red one. Give the others to anybody you see down there trying to help. Hold it in your hand to activate the bioscan. Remember this word: _ho'ololi_. Now _go_!"

Landon's head was swimming. "I-"

"Mr. Ketterling, _move_!"

Landon didn't argue. He took the box and sprinted out of the lab, into the hall, past his very confused tour group, and out the emergency exit door closest to the beach.

* * *

_Nakoa, where _are_ you? _Emily wondered frantically as she searched the water for her friend. Out in the water, the top of the water was starting to bubble and froth, but not in the way it usually did when it stormed in the islands. She'd hung up with 911, anxiously waiting their promised ambulance and divers. but Nakoa hadn't reappeared. It had been several minutes. She didn't know how long her friend could hold his breath. "Any sign of them?" she demanded of an onlooker. They wordlessly shook their head, eyes fixated on the churning water that was getting closer to them. Several people were already running away, down the beach or up to the parking lot. Emily clasped her hands together in front of her mouth, willing Nakoa to appear.

Someone bumped into her, and she looked up to see a tall man in a red polo and khaki shorts running down toward the waterline. Emily ran after him. "Who are you?" she asked, intrigued by the only person running _toward_ the phenomenon rather than away.

He stopped, turned to her. Sizing her up. Then, he handed her a plain white object that resembled a spiraled seashell.

"What-" Emily began, but he shook his head.

"Just take it!" he urged her. Dropping the box he'd pulled them from in the sand, Landon Ketterling clutched a similar shell, just colored red, in his hand. It felt warm, buzzing to the touch. Then, his vision went dark and he heard the young woman cry out next to him.

"What?" he asked. His voice sounded strange in his ears.

She was staring. "I- you-you look like-"

Before she could finish her thought, Landon watched a white light spread over her, enveloping her. A moment later, she was wearing some kind of biomechanical suit with a helmet and a dark visor. _Explains a lot_, he decided.

It seemed she was more in tune with what was happening. She grabbed his arm. "We have to get out there," she ordered him, not even knowing whether or not he could hear her in the helmet. "My friend and another girl-they've been underwater too long!"

Landon shot her a thumbs up.

Without another word, the two of them dove into the water.

* * *

**Author's Note****: I have no background in surfing, nor the weather in Hawaii. As to the 'accidental' morph, there, that was one of my favorite parts of Dino Charge, so that was my homage.**


	3. Storm Surge

**Disclaimer: If it looks like a Power Ranger and morphs like a Power Ranger, and puns like a Power Ranger...it's mine. If it looks, morphs or puns like a Power Ranger you've seen on TV, then it's not mine. And if it's named Hannah Johnson, it's on loan from Sir Perfluous and his series, "Power Rangers: Oceania."**

* * *

**Chapter Two:** _Storm Surge_

Nakoa Kino was dying. Or at least that was what it felt like.

He had swam up to the strange creatures and tried peeling Kealey Shepard from their grasp, all the while trying to avoid the eerie tentacles that snaked out around him, trying to wrap around his limbs. Kealey was limp, eyes closed in their grasp.

And now, Nakoa could feel himself faltering. The edges of his vision were graying. His lungs were burning.

_Have…to keep…_Nakoa felt a tentacle wrap around his chest and shoulders, but didn't have the strength to fend it off.

Before his vision went completely black, he thought he saw something coming toward them…two figures, in red and white.

* * *

"Hey, there's jets on the suit!" Landon realized, the same time he realized he could speak in the helmet, forgetting it wasn't a dive mask. Bursts of air propelled him forward, and he rammed headfirst into one of the tentacled things, knocking it backwards, stirring up silt. "Hey, can you hear me?" he asked the girl in the matching white-and-black suit next to him.

"You're yelling in my ear-of _course_ I can hear you!" Emily said. "But okay, I got it. Let's see..." Using her own jets, she powered her outstretched arms into the thing holding Nakoa, knocking her friend loose. She grabbed Nakoa under the arms. "Okay, I gotta get him out of here," she told her new friend in red, looping Nakoa's arm over her shoulders, then using the jets to propel her upwards.

Landon was left alone, facing the line of creatures. One held the blonde girl aloft like a trophy. Landon chose it as his next target, pushing off on the bottom of the seabed and powering both of his booted feet into the thing holding her. The jolt made it release her, and Landon grabbed her by the arm and powered upwards. He broke the surface like a breaching submarine, the power behind the jets arcing him up and unceremoniously depositing both of them on the beach. Landon hit hard, his suit disappeared, and he stared at the sky for a moment before rolling over, scrabbling through the sand to reach the blonde girl. She wasn't breathing. Immediately, he started CPR, all the while keeping one eye out on the water. The bubbling was closer. The things were still coming.

"Come on, breathe," he grunted as he continued compressions. "We're gonna need some help here pretty soon."

Emily turned Nakoa quickly on his side as her friend coughed up water. He sucked in air, looking bleakly at Emily's concerned face. "I…what happened?"

"I really don't know," Emily said honestly. She looked over to where the guy in red was still doing CPR on Kealey Shepard. "It's a lot to explain."

Eerie glowing tentacles broke the surface, reaching across the sand. Emily looked around, spotted the black box the stranger had been holding, and ran over to it. "Gotta be….please tell me…._yes_." She picked it up and popped it open, pulled out a blue shell. "Here," she told Nakoa. "Just take it."

"Em, what-"

"Just _do_ it!" Emily was already clutching her own shell in a white-knuckled grip, saw a white glow in the surf. "Oh, no." _Please work again, please work again…_

* * *

"_Damn_ it!" Landon swore as he tilted the girl's head back and administered two more breaths. He glanced up, saw the brunette from earlier and the guy they'd saved come running at him, the girl holding the box from Dr. Johnson in her hands .

"They're coming!" she was yelling. Her friend was pointing backwards as the luminous round things were mindlessly rolling toward them.

"Try to hold them off," Landon gritted his teeth.

"_How_?" her friend demanded. "With _this_ thing?" He waved the blue shell in the air. "What am I supposed to do-_throw_ it at them?"

"Then switch me!" Landon commanded, and the guy slid over and dropped to his knees, taking over compressions as Landon jumped up and stood beside Emily.

"How do we bring those suits back?" Emily asked.

Landon held his shell up and then clutched it in his fist. "It's linked with your brain!" he told her. "Just…just _tell_ it to appear."

She eyed him dubiously. "Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Hey, it worked before!" Landon countered. He closed his eyes. _Come on…come on._ His eyes flew open as he remembered what Dr. Johnson had said.

_Remember this word…_

* * *

Nakoa looked down at the little black box and the plain pink shell that remained inside. _She's gone_, he thought miserably. He pulled the pink shell out and rolled it over with his fingers. Then, he pushed it into Kealey's lifeless hand.

_I'm so sorry_. Furious, Nakoa got to his feet and ran to join Emily and the other guy.

"Is she-" Landon began.

Nakoa shook his head, brushing away tears with the back of his hand. "I don't know what in _hell_ these things are, but I want a piece of them." He pulled the blue shell from his shorts pocket. "So what is this thing and what does it do?"

Landon took a step forward, standing in front of Emily and Nakoa. "Follow my lead," he told them. He closed his hand around his shell. "_Ho'ololi_," he whispered aloud.

"What?" Emily asked Nakoa.

Her Hawaiian friend replied, "It means, 'transform.'"

"Oh." Emily wrapped her fingers around her shell. Nakoa was holding his so tight it was leaving an imprint in his palm. The two of them looked at each other.

"_Ho'ololi_," they said together.

Instantly, what looked like colored metal enveloped their hands, emitting a low colored glow in each of the shell's colors: red for Landon, white for Emily, and blue for Nakoa. It spread up their arms and across their bodies, up their neck and finally, around their heads. Nakoa's vision darkened and he looked down to see himself encased in some kind of wetsuit-looking thing. A hurricane symbol was emblazoned across the chest, matching the colored armored material encasing their arms and legs. Colored armor plates hardened at their elbows and thighs. Each had colored renderings of boots and gloves in the colors of their shells. Emily had a black nanofiber skirt with a giant white paw. Down the side of his legs, Nakoa was sporting blue jagged lines that strongly resembled shark teeth. And Landon had a red swirl that he recognized as the color pattern of an orca- a killer whale.

Landon looked at his two teammates, then ahead at the rolling creatures. "These suits packed a punch underwater," he reminded Emily. "Let's see how they do on land."

"They're on _our_ turf now," Emily replied confidently from behind the scuba mask-shaped visor and helmet.

Nakoa clenched his fists. "For Kealey," he added.

And then, the three of them surged forward into battle.

* * *

No one noticed the soft pink glow that enveloped Kealey Shepard, or noticed when she jolted awake, her hands clawing at the sand. She stared up at the sky through tinted vision, then rolled over, her eyes going wide at the fight taking place just feet from her. _What is going on?_ She stood up, took a moment to look at the pink and black body armor stuff with the pink dolphin tail that had replaced her wetsuit. Then, she looked at the action.

_Those are the things that grabbed me, and wrecked my board_! _Which means…now it's personal._ Kealey ran forward and joined in the fight, grabbing the tentacles of one creature like a bouquet of flowers. She held them tightly together as she grunted, throwing them over her shoulder to land on the beach. It writhed, then lay still.

Landon looked at the fallen creature, then at Kealey. "Hey, you're not dead!" he exclaimed.

Kealey's jaw dropped behind her visor. "I'm not…_what_?" she gaped. "Wait. Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, my God, you're _alive_!" That came from Nakoa, who used the jets on his suit to leap into the air, then drive a foot through the top of one of the tentacled things.

Kealey dodged another creature and glared at both boys. "Will you _stop_ saying that?" she ordered.

"Hey, can we maybe talk about this later?" Emily suggested. She pointed a white fist back at the creatures. "We've got bigger fish to fry….no pun intended."

"They just keep coming," Landon groaned. "We could really use some extra help."

"_You've got it,"_ a voice reverberated inside his helmet, bringing him up short.

"_Doc?!" _Landon said incredulously.

"_That's Dr. Johnson to you still,_" Hannah Johnson's voice reprimanded him over the communications system. "_And yes_. _Each of you has a personalized weapon to use_," she informed them. "_Just hold out a hand_."

Landon glanced at Emily, Kealey, and Nakoa, then, turned his right hand palm up. A vicious-looking serrated sword materialized in his hand, forming the same way his suit had. Kealey was holding a coiled pink whip, Nakoa sported two blue daggers in both hands, and Emily had a pair of white fans with bladed edges.

"That should do it," Emily nodded.

"Let's take 'em down!" Nakoa yelled.

"There was just someone _talking_ in my head!" Kealey protested, but as it wasn't seeming to bother any of the others, she rolled with it, uncurling the whip and lashing out, slicing one of the creatures in half like an orange.

"_That's the Medusa Stinger_," the voice told her. "_And I am the 'someone' talking in your head- my name is Dr. Johnson_."

Kealey lashed out with the whip again, entangling some of the tentacles of another creature and flinging them out into the water. "Nice to meet you, I guess?"

"Dr. Johnson, what _are_ these things?" Landon asked her. It felt weird talking to himself inside the helmet.

"_It's called the Coral Blade_," his boss's voice explained over the phone. _"Your friend in blue has the Mako Daggers, and the shorter girl has the Venus Fans_."

"I'm not that short!" Emily shot back as she sliced through the tentacles of another creature, rendering it a useless white ball that Nakoa quickly sliced to ribbons.

"I actually meant the weird white things, Doc," Landon explained not-so-patiently as he cleaved another of them into pieces.

"_Oh. At first glance, they appear to be some type of foraminifera,"_ Dr. Johnson said. "_The tentacles are actually a granular ectoplasm that they use for catching food. However, they are not usually this large_."

"You don't say," Nakoa grunted, driving the daggers into the white mass currently trying to roll over him.

"_In fact, they are a benthic creature-they shouldn't be able to survive out on the land. This is fascinating_."

"I'll think they're more fascinating when they stop trying to catch us," Landon replied. Nakoa tossed his daggers, pinning one by the tentacles (_not tentacles but whatever_, Landon thought), and Landon made quick work of it, dicing it into four quarters and watching it fall apart.

He looked up. The beach was littered with the creatures, and the four humans were the only things left standing.

"Is that it?" Kealey breathed. "Did we get all of them?"

"Looks like," Landon said. His suit disappeared back into the shell in his hand, and he sat down on the beach, breathing hard.

"I think your Doctor Johnson has some explaining to do," Emily told him.

"She's not 'my' Doctor Johnson," Landon replied. "I'm Landon, by the way."

"Emily."

Nakoa waved a tired arm. "Nakoa." He yelped and slid sideways across the sand as one of the tentacles jerked near his arm.

Kealey held up one hand with her thumb and pinkie extended-the classic 'hang ten' sign. "Kealey," she announced. "Now that we're all, you know, normal….will someone _please_ explain to me why everybody keeps telling me I'm not dead?"

* * *

Hannah Johnson stood with her back to the four young adults, replaying back the video of the fight on the screen. Behind her, Landon, Emily, Nakoa, and Kealey sat in muted silence, watching the footage themselves. Kealey thumbed the pink shell in her pocket, watching her movements on the screen. "I didn't even know I could do half of that," she muttered. Louder, she said, "So, when's someone gonna explain the whole 'not dead' thing to me? 'Cause the last thing I remember is getting dragged under by one of those things-what _are_ those things, by the way?"

"Doc?" Landon pressed. "You wanna explain what's going on?" He pointed to the screen. "That particular species of foraminifera…their max growth is 20 centimeters. Not seven feet tall. So, they're what? Mutated?"

"_I'm afraid not_." The screen went dark and then video appeared of an older looking man with graying brown hair and glasses. Two butterfly bandages were holding together a nasty-looking gash in his forehead.

"Kevin!" Hannah burst out. "You're alive!" Landon saw some of the color return to her face and allowed himself a smile.

Kevin McCoy smiled at his wife. "_Hi, beautiful_. _Didn't mean to scare you._" Then he turned serious again. "_Leo_ _just returned this footage from the bottom of the Challenger Deep. Hannah, honey, you might want to pay especially close attention_." Dr. Kevin McCoy pressed a button on the laptop in front of him, changing the video source.

"_This was shortly after Rose was hit broadside_," he explained off-camera. The five people in Hawaii stared as the little _Leo_ ROV slowly dropped through the depths, finally coming to rest next to a large black smoker.

"Where is _that_?" Kealey whispered.

"The Challenger Deep," Landon explained. "The deepest spot on the planet." The young biologist watched as something came close to _Leo_, illuminated in its' little front lamp. Something humanoid. Pale, glowing skin. Glowing green eyes. A mottled purple tail, and then, _Leo_ went flying, the picture going in and out, before finally going out completely.

Landon jumped out of his chair. "Dr. Johnson, what in the _hell_ was that?" he gaped, pointing at the frozen video screen, which Dr. McCoy had rewound back to the mermaid-looking _thing_ that had kicked _Leo_ out of frame.

"_We're not sure_," Dr. McCoy replied. "_We were actually hoping, Hannah, that this would be more in your realm of expertise_?"

"There's no fish, no mammal, _nothing_ that looks like that living in the Challenger Deep, or anywhere in the ocean!" Landon argued. "Nothing in marine biology can possibly explain that!"

"He doesn't mean because of my degree, Landon," Hannah cut off his tirade. "He means because I used to be a Power Ranger."

There was a pause. "I'm sorry…a _what_ now?" Nakoa asked.

"That explains it," Emily said quietly, and all eyes turned to her. "Landon, the first time that suit thing appeared…I remember stories from when I was a kid in California. Power Rangers. Suits like ours, fighting off alien invaders," she explained. "Holy cow, Dr. Johnson, you were _one_ of them?!"

"Not in California," Hannah replied. "Here, in the islands. Twelve years ago. Most of you would've been too young to remember." She smiled fondly at the memories. "I was the Orange Oceania Ranger." Then she frowned. "But we defeated Hine Nui. This can't possibly be her again. If it was, I'm sure I would have heard-"

"_A group of us are going back down as soon as we repair Rose_," Dr. McCoy's face filled the screen again. "_We'll see if we can't get you more information."_

Her facial expression clearly indicated she didn't like this plan, but Hannah also knew her husband was a stubborn as she was when he was presented with a mystery. She remembered following a certain Navy Lieutenant around trying to get answers once herself. "We'll hold the fort here."

"_The biomechanical suits…did they work_?" Kevin McCoy asked excitedly.

Hannah nodded. "Brilliantly, actually," she confirmed. She pointed to the young people behind her. "Meet the team."

Landon gave a weak wave. "Hey."

"_Everybody's talking about you guys out here_," Dr. McCoy was grinning ear to ear. "_News travels fast. __Sounds like the islands are in good hands while we figure out what's going on."_

"Yeah, but," Emily said aloud, "how long will _that_ take?"

"However long it may be," Hannah interjected, "we'll do what we have to. Like it or not, the four of you are all that stand between _whatever_ sent those creatures and the Hawaiian Islands."

There was a pause as Emily, Nakoa, Kealey, and Landon processed that. Then, Nakoa spoke.

"So…no pressure."

* * *

**Author's Note**: And thus ends episode 1! Be honest...how am I doing?


	4. A School of Rangers

**Chapter Three:** _A School of Rangers_

Emily Rice stared openmouthed at the aqua blue, bungalow-style home in front of her. "Whoa. This beats my dorm room," she told Nakoa as he crawled out of the truck behind her.

The house sat on a waterfront lot. Emily could see green lawn wrapping around the side of it, and beyond it, a strip of beach and the gray expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The stormy weather had subsided right around the time of their defeat of the rolling, glowing things with tentacles. She shouldered her backpack and looked up at Nakoa, who was taking it all in.

He whistled. "Nice," he agreed, snapping a photo with his phone, then dragging Emily in for a selfie.

"I called in a favor," Dr. Johnson was telling Landon as she led the way up the driveway to the front door. "Really, the only two of you that are acquainted are Emily and Nakoa, so this'll be a chance for you guys to get to know each other, since you'll be working together."

_Working…_Landon refrained from rolling his eyes. _Not exactly the word I'd have chosen._

She unlocked the door and held the door while Landon, Emily, Nakoa and Kealey entered. The four of them stopped in the entryway. Dr. Johnson sighed. "Guys. Move," she said with a grin. "Seriously. There's more to the place than the entryway."

"Yeah," Nakoa whispered to Emily, "and I might get lost if I don't have a way to get back here."

"This isn't bad," Kealey decided. "Kinda reminds me of the CEO of Storm Chargers' place in Santa Barbara."

Landon set his duffel bag down and turned to Dr. Johnson. "This place is amazing, Doc," he told her. "I just…"

Dr. Johnson nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I get it, Landon. Believe me, I get it better than you think." She gestured toward the kitchen at the back of the house. "How about you guys find a bedroom, get settled, and meet me back in here in about twenty minutes?"

* * *

Emily followed Nakoa downstairs, where they discovered two bedrooms and a bathroom, with a sunroom that opened out onto the lawn. "You pick, Em," Nakoa offered graciously. "I'm good with whatever."

Emily smiled and poked her head in both bedrooms before tossing a thumb at one of the doors. "This one," she said. She went in and tossed her backpack on the bed. Nakoa followed her in, surveying the room. It was painted a sunny yellow with white furniture and a big window that looked out toward the front of the lot. "It's big and bright, like you," Nakoa teased.

"Ha," Emily shot back. "Let's go look at yours!" She hopped off the bed-literally, as her short stature meant she'd be climbing off and on-and followed Nakoa to the other room. "Oh yeah, this suits you," she told him, taking in the palm tree motif that framed the bed and the big potted aloe vera plant in the corner.

"This is all so crazy, isn't it," Nakoa said, leaning on his windowsill that framed the beach. "I mean, one minute, we're normal people, and the next…"

"It's unbelieveable," Emily agreed. "And terrifying. I came here for an associate's degree, _not_ to become some kind of superhero." She sat down on Nakoa's bed, thankfully shorter than her own. "Hey, Nakoa…you wanna trade me beds?"

* * *

Landon leaned in the doorway of Kealey's room. "All settled in?" he asked the surfer.

Kealey set her surfboard in the corner, a bright pink accent to an otherwise pale blue room. "Depends on what you mean by 'settled,'" she countered.

"Yeah, I get that," Landon replied.

"No, you don't," Kealey turned around to face him, pushing her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "_You_ weren't _dead_ two hours ago."

Landon grimaced. "You're right," he said. "I guess I meant settled into how things are going to be for awhile."

"Yeah, and just how long is 'awhile?'" Kealey asked him. "I've got a life, thank you. A life that did _not_ involve creepy rolling white things, black superhero suits and _dying_."

"And yet," Landon told her, "everything that you just said involves us too," he said. "You don't remember, but Nakoa almost died coming in the water after you, and I was the one giving you CPR on the beach after we fished you back out." He gestured with his hands at the house. "Like it or not," he told her, "we're all in this together."

"I didn't _ask_ for this," Kealey burst out.

Landon shrugged. "Neither did the rest of us," he reminded her, turning to leave. As an afterthought, he added, "See you in the kitchen."

Kealey waited until he left the room, then flopped onto the bed in a huff.

* * *

_Memories_, Hannah Johnson thought to herself, looking at the four strangers currently making small talk at the table over pizza and soda (beer for Landon, as he was the only one of age). While she hadn't actually lived in the same house as her fellow Oceania Rangers, she did remember similar circumstances. Five strangers thrown together and forced to fight some weird creatures. _Six, _she remembered, _that day on Maui…God, that was an awesome day. Terrifying. But awesome._

She blinked when she realized Landon was calling her name. "Sorry, Landon, what?" she asked.

"Well," the Red Ranger said, looking around the table, "we, ah, were kind of hoping you'd be able to answer some questions for us."

She nodded. "Sure," she told him. "Fire away."

"Well," Landon started, "how about these things?" He held out the bright red shell.

Hannah smiled. "They're nanotech," she explained. "Voice-activated...Well, except for the first time you used them," she added, running a hand through her hair, embarrassed. "I may have accidentally kickstarted that for you, Emily and Landon." The two young people exchanged a Look, and Hannah shrugged. "What? I was excited, and you needed the push! The nanites are in the casing. Your suits are designed to give you protection as well as enhanced reflexes. The headpiece is equipped with a communications system that links you to each other as well as to me. Plus a heads-up display and a couple other things."

"So, you and Doc McCoy just decided one day to build a ranger suit?" Landon asked.

"No, actually," Hannah replied. "What we _were_ trying to design was a diving suit capable of handling deep ocean exploration."

"I don't get mine," Emily said. She toyed with the white shell. "'Cause well, Landon's looks like a killer whale, Kealey's got a dolphin, Nakoa has shark teeth, and mine…what's with the bear paw?"

"Polar bear," Hannah supplied.

"Polar bears don't live in the ocean, Doc," Kealey informed her. Landon shot her a Look, but before the marine biologist could explain, Hannah took over.

"They're technically classified as a marine mammal," she explained. "I mean, we could've done a jellyfish or something, but I kind of liked the power and grace of the polar bear."

"Obviously _not_ Dr. McCoy's idea," Landon guessed, and Hannah nodded.

"Speaking of that Dr. McCoy person," Kealey jumped in, "what was that _thing_ we saw in the video?"

Hannah shook her head. "We don't know. Some kind of undiscovered creature that lives in the Trench, I guess. They're going back down there to try to figure it out."

"I can't believe they're going down there again," Nakoa breathed. "That's crazy. I mean, look what happened the first time."

Hannah shivered; she was well aware. "There is definitely a connection between what happened to the four of you today and the attack in the Challenger Deep," she told them. "For one, the attack on the sub, combined with the strange humanoid creature on the _Leo_ video, then the foraminifera off Waikiki…" She shrugged. "Too many strange occurrences at the same time lead me to believe there's a connection."

"You would know," Landon added. "Because of the whole Ranger thing?" he pressed. "That was _not_ mentioned when you hired me."

"First of all," Hannah pointed out, "that wouldn't have been anything having to do with your job description. Second of all…yes, it's been my experience that when weird, creepy, supernatural-type stuff happens, it's happening for a reason."

"And so now we're in charge of stopping it," Emily spoke up. She looked around the table. "Why us?"

Hannah looked at each of them in turn. "Right place, right time," she said seriously. "I have to believe it was the four of you for a reason."

"But what you're saying is that, if it would've been any four schmucks on that beach…" Nakoa trailed off.

"Yeah, that's not exactly reassuring," Kealey added.

Landon set his beer bottle down so hard the sound echoed in the kitchen. "The point is," he told them, coming to his boss's defense, "it's _us_. Like it or not. So we better get used to each other and our new side jobs." His gaze lingered on Kealey longer than everyone else before getting up from the table and going out on the deck.

Emily blinked at him. "Wow, underneath that mild-mannered scientist is Aquaman!"

The group laughed, but it was an uneasy laugh.

* * *

Landon didn't know how long he was out leaning on the railing listening to the wind and the waves. He was aware that behind him, conversation had dwindled. He didn't know who was still at the table.

The door slid back and closed, and someone came to stand beside him.

"What was all that, Landon?" Nakoa asked him. The younger man turned his gaze to the dark water and starlit sky.

"What was all what?" Landon returned.

Nakoa barked out a short laugh. "That whole Captain America speech," he replied. "You seem to be taking this all really well," he added. "More than the rest of us."

Landon thought a moment before answering. "Guess I got a little heated in there," he said after a bit.

"So what was that about?" Nakoa asked him again.

The newly-crowned Red Ranger shook his head. "It's stupid, really," he told Nakoa.

Nakoa shrugged. "Try me," he said.

Landon turned to look at Nakoa. "My dad and I lived in Louisiana during the BP oil spill," he said. "That's when I decided I wanted to study the ocean, the things living in it…so I could help them. Maybe to keep something like that from happening again."

"Em was right," Nakoa said. "You really _are_ Aquaman."

Landon snorted. "She said that?" Nakoa grinned, and Landon shook his head. "Yeah well…maybe I'm taking this a little too seriously, this whole saving the ocean thing, but…" He looked at Nakoa. "I mean, we kicked some ass on that beach today. Tell me you didn't like it, just a little."

Nakoa shook his head. "You kidding me? That was terrifying."

Landon raised an eyebrow.

Nakoa grinned. "No, it was pretty awesome though." He let his smile drop and he looked out on the water. "Do you think there's more coming?"

Landon nodded. "Yeah. I also know we're not gonna get through it unless we work together."

The two men watched the waves break on the beach below, lost in thought.

* * *

Emily flicked idly through the TV channels, finally settling on the local news. Nakoa had followed Landon outside and Kealey had retreated to her bedroom. Dr. Johnson had left, citing an early morning for work.

"_Let's take a live look out at Diamond Head_," the weather anchor was saying. _"Clear skies, beautiful night…what's _that?"

Emily frowned, catching what the news anchor was talking about. A white glow, lighting up the slopes of Diamond Head. "Guys!" she gasped, then, louder, "_Guys! _Get in here!"

Landon and Nakoa burst through the doors, sliding across the teak floor into the living room. Half a second later, Kealey came sprinting from her bedroom, her hair in a messy pony and wearing a sleep tank and shorts. "What the hell, Emma?"

"It's _Emily_," Emily said. "And _look_ at Diamond Head."

The four of them watched. A news helicopter was currently en route, and social media video was pouring into the station. "Those people are crazy, what are they _doing_ there?" Nakoa wondered.

"Look! It's more of those things from earlier...the fora...the tentacle things!" Kealey pointed.

In front of the line was a larger creature. It had large eyes and a bulbous head. As the Rangers watched, it started to glow, until it was too bright for the skywatch camera, and they had to cut back to the studio.

"What the hell's that big thing in front of 'em?" Emily asked. "The thing with the literal headlight?"

Landon thought about it. "Some kind of Barreleye," he decided. "The eyes, see how they stick out from the body? It's so they can look _up_ as well as _forward_ to find prey. They're also called spook fish."

"They're pretty damn spooky," Kealey agreed.

"Something else that shouldn't be walking around Hawaii?" Nakoa looked to Landon for confirmation, and the marine biologist nodded. "Then maybe…maybe we should tell them to shove off?"

The four young adults looked at each other. Behind them, the news anchor had gone into crisis mode. "_You can see from the video that these creatures are attacking people! We've been advised to tell people to stay away from the Diamond Head area. Honolulu PD are en route_-"

"There, let the cops handle it," Kealey said, pointing to the TV.

"But Kealey…" Emily looked at her. "These are walking _fish_. I don't know…I think this is a little beyond them."

"But it's right up our alley," Landon said. He looked at them. "If we don't do something, who knows what they'll do. People could get hurt. Besides, maybe we can get some answers as to what's going on."

"I'm in," Nakoa said immediately.

Emily looked at the TV, then at the two boys. "Yeah, I want to know what's going on," she decided.

The three of them looked at Kealey. The blonde looked at them.

Kealey sighed. "This is crazy, you realize that, right?"

"Completely," Landon agreed with a grin. "So…are you coming?"

The blonde haired surfer looked at each of her new housemates in turn.

"Come on, Kealey," Nakoa said. He was grinning. "You love some good competition, right?"

She tugged on her nanite shell. "Can't let you guys have all the fun, I guess."

* * *

The walking ghostfish gave the slopes of Diamond Head an eerie glow. Landon pulled his truck, a bright red Chevy Avalanche, into a parking spot near a small picnic area. Some late-night picnickers had been cornered by the creepy-looking fish creatures and the taller barreleye that was coordinating the attack. Up close, they could see that the fish were more of a fish and human hybrid- fishy features with legs and arms.

"This just keeps getting weirder," Emily commented.

"Hold it right there!" Landon yelled, slamming the door of his truck. He pointed at the Barreleye. "Leave those people alone!"

The barreleye said nothing, turning its' elongated eyes toward the four newcomers. As if on some telepathic link, the round foot soldiers turned, angling toward the better prey that had just arrived.

"Get outta here!" Kealey yelled at the terrified people, who turned and ran, nearly knocking over a garbage can nearby.

Landon stepped in front of the group. "Who sent you?" he demanded of them. He clenched a fist and dug a toe into the sand, standing his ground as they silently advanced.

"Maybe they're shy," Emily muttered.

"Or just not the talkative type," Nakoa agreed.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not really in a talkative mood," Landon replied. He pulled his shell from his pocket. "Ready…team?"

He got three nods. "Let's do this!" His fingers clenched around the shell and the nanites emerged. "Let's Turn the Tide! _Ho'ololi_!"

Red, Pink, Blue and White light glinted off the beach as the nanites spread, forming their suits, competing with the ghastly glow of the white foraminifera. Four Rangers stood, their heels dug into the sand.

"Let's turn these guys into bait," Nakoa said, brandishing his twin daggers.

"Let's see if we can't get some answers," Emily agreed.

"Enough talking," Kealey decided, and charged forward.

Landon gawked at her a moment, then followed her into the fray. "Could use those special weapons tonight, Doc," he spoke aloud, holding out a hand, the Coral Blade materializing in his hand.

"_You've got it,"_ Hannah said easily. "_And, sending the others._"

Landon's red sword easily sliced through the forward-marching soldiers. He drove his foot into one, brought his blade back and around, and bisected it. The two pieces dropped to the beach and then, like a worm in the sunlight, shriveled into nothing.

He turned to look at the larger Barreleye, which had set its' eyes on the Red Ranger. "Come get me," Landon taunted.

Kealey's whip bound several of the white fish together, and Emily and Nakoa made short work of them. The three of them turned and looked through the crowd to see Landon taking on the bigger fish by himself. The Barreleye charged him, catching Landon off guard, knocking him sideways into the sand. His sword skittered through the dark sand.

"That thing's huge, he'll never be able to take it by himself," Emily said.

Landon nimbly rolled away but the Barreleye came silently after him, moving on land more agilely than any of the rangers would have thought. The translucent bubble protecting its' eyes glowed bright, and Landon threw an arm over his visor to block it.

"Must be part of the adaptation to living in the Trench!" Nakoa said, pummeling one of the round amoebas with his gloved hands.

"It's not supposed to _glow_ like this!" Landon countered. "Whatever sent it, it must have, I dunno, _enhanced_ it somehow!" The ghastly fish was glowing brighter, and Landon rolled out of the way, shaking his head to clear his vision.

"How can we fight it if we can't see it?" Kealey asked, tripping up one of the glowing foot soldiers with her whip.

"Maybe if we all charge the light at once…I mean, we've gotta hit something no matter what, right?" Emily offered, cutting down another.

"Sure, except it'll probably be one of us!" Nakoa countered.

"Worth a shot. If we don't do something, Landon's going to either go blind or get his ass handed to him…neither of which are promising," Kealey said.

"First, we gotta get through all these damn things," Nakoa huffed. He plowed into one of the ghost fish like a linebacker, knocking it into Kealey, who wrapped her whip around it so Emily could use her bladed fans to slice and dice.

The three of them looked at each other in surprise. "That was _cool_," Emily pronounced.

"So, don't stop _now_!" Kealey told her, and the three of them went back to work….together.

* * *

While the Pink, White and Blue rangers fought their way through the amoeboid soldiers, Landon fought back against the Barreleye. His mind was racing, trying to think of a weakness for the strange fish. _If it looks like a Barreleye, it should have the same weaknesses…_The bright light emanating from its' forehead was making it near impossible to focus. He was having to blindly attack and then duck out of the way. The thing was like Rocky Balboa, it just kept coming at him.

"Hey, Landon!"

Landon took a wild swing with his Coral Blade and shielded his eyes to see the others coming at him. "Little busy," he breathed.

"We're all gonna charge it together!" Emily instructed.

Landon swung again and heard an unearthly howl. _I got him_! "What if we hit each other?" he asked, somersaulting through the sand.

"We won't!" Nakoa assured him. "We can do this!"

"Just aim for the brightest thing on the beach!" Kealey said. "And get close enough for a major hit!"

Landon shook his head. "This is a terrible plan," he told them.

"You got any others, oh Fearless Leader?" the Pink Ranger shot back.

Landon considered that. "I'm not your Fearless Leader. Guess we're doing this." He closed his eyes. "I trust you guys. On my signal."

Nakoa tensed. The light was blinding. He felt the sand shift next to him, knew Emily and Kealey were flanking him.

"_Now_!" Landon commanded. The four rangers surged forward, weapons outstretched, and brought them over their heads and down onto the Barreleye.

The light disappeared instantly, and Landon opened his eyes.

The Barreleye lay on the beach, the glow in its' forehead slowly blinking out. Then, it too shriveled and disappeared.

The four rangers stared at each other, eyes adjusting to the darkness on the beach.

"Got any other bright ideas?" Landon asked Kealey.

The Pink Ranger rolled her eyes. "Just one," she said, and punched him _hard_ in the arm. "That was for the lousy joke."

But she was smiling as she said it.

Landon yelped, and the four of them burst out laughing.

* * *

Back at AMRI, Hannah Johnson watched the video feeds from the helmets with a satisfied smile on her face.


	5. Hero, Complex

**Disclaimer:** The characters are mine.

* * *

**Chapter Four: **_Hero, Complex_

Landon Ketterling was up before anyone else in the house the next morning. He made his way into the kitchen, on the hunt for coffee. Outside, the sky was just turning pink on the horizon, and the waves lapped gently onto the beach below the house.

_What a change from last night_, he thought to himself, finally spotting a Keurig tucked away in a corner of the counter. He searched the cupboards for the cups, finding one for a regular blend. While he waited for it to brew, the night before replayed back in his mind.

"_This is a terrible plan!"_

"_You got any others, oh Fearless Leader?"_

"_I'm not your Fearless Leader."_

The coffee maker beeped at him, and he pulled the mug out, slid the deck doors open, and stepped out into the morning air. _I'm not the leader…right?_ He thought about the attack on the beach, about Diamond Head. _I mean, we were pretty much all making decisions together, right?_

"Please tell me there's more of that."

Landon blinked and turned to see Emily in a pair of pajama shorts and her ever-present University of Hawaii sweatshirt. "Hey Em. Yeah, in the cupboard above the sink. Depends on the flavor you want though."

"Black," Emily said blearily. "Like my soul." She disappeared into the kitchen as Landon chuckled, returning about five minutes later with a mug of her own. "So," she said, after a few moments of drinking in silence. "Last night…that really happened, huh?"

Landon nodded once. "Yeah." He gestured out over the lawn. "Hard to believe."

Emily leaned on the railing. "Think there'll be more?"

"I hope not," Landon told her. "Hey, Em? When you were growing up in California…the Rangers you saw. What was that like?"

The younger woman took a long sip before answering. "Well. I mean, I only saw them a couple times. After the first few attacks, the city I lived in implemented warning systems. Kind of like the earthquake drills we already had, except this was for alien attacks. So I never got to see them, mostly just saw whatever was left afterwards. But," she added, seeing that Landon was waiting for more, "they were incredible. Like something out of a kung fu movie. Cool uniforms, martial arts. They worked together really well," she continued. "Like…it was like they all moved as one sometimes. Or like, they could tell what the other was thinking."

"So it was more of a team effort?" Landon asked. "There wasn't like, one person in charge?"

Emily shook her head. "I wouldn't say that. Traditionally, based on what I'd heard anyway, the Red Ranger is like the head of the team." She grinned. "Kind of like you, yesterday."

"Me?" Landon sputtered. "When was…I mean, how did-"

She laughed. "Well, I mean, you showed up on the beach with these shells. You told me and Nakoa how to use them. And then before we went to Diamond Head last night…" Emily looked up at him. "Well, you were very determined that we had to be the ones to go do something."

"So were you," Landon pointed out.

Emily shrugged. "Yeah, but…I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone alone." She returned her gaze to the ocean. "Where I think you might've." She shivered. "I need pants." She disappeared into the house, leaving Landon alone.

* * *

_**Marianas Trench**_

Syrena was fuming. Her creatures were returning, defeated, to the Trench. None had been victorious. They told her of four humans in colored armor, who fought like warriors and bested them on the land.

_They will not defeat me,_ Syrena hissed in the darkness. _They will pay for what they've done to my ocean._ As she swam through the darkness, contemplating her next move, bright lights split the darkness.

_They have returned? _She would have rolled her eyes if she had the capability. She flitted just out of range, watching as a silver machine floated through the inky blackness of the Challenger Deep. _Did they not learn from our last encounter_? She knew she'd hurt one of them, and she wasn't sorry about it.

A thought brought her up short. _Perhaps it is I who needs to learn from them_, she decided. She sidled up alongside the submersible, staying out of range of the portholes, and listened. Voices echoed inside the metal machine.

"…wife tells me they're something to see," one man was saying.

"When will she be here?" another voice asked.

"She's gettin' on a flight this morning," the first one said. "She's left AMRI in good hands. The kid in charge is a good guy."

"Is he, you know, one of _them_?"

"No idea, but he'd be a good one. I should know, I hired him to work at AMRI."

Syrena recalled the letters on the yellow box. AMRI. _Perhaps I should be putting my focus on this place,_ Syrena thought.

* * *

_**AMRI**_  
_**Honolulu, Hawaii**_

Landon was still pondering his Red Ranger role a few days later as he absentmindedly washed some lettuce in the industrial sink at AMRI. Dr. Johnson was on a flight to the Philippines to meet up with Dr. McCoy, leaving Landon as the most senior-ranking member of AMRI in the building. He didn't always like being in charge; he was more than happy to be the person who made the leader look good, but he had been there the longest and Dr. Johnson had put him in charge for the next few days while she and Dr. McCoy tried to figure out what was going on in the Trench. "You're the most qualified person I've got, Landon," she'd told him. "You'll be fine."

Landon had gotten his degree in Marine Biology in record time, and had been around water for most of his life. His father, a mechanic for a big petroleum company, had worked on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He turned the sink off, shaking out the strainer and headed for the lagoon. Outside, the weather was bright and sunny, promising to be another day in paradise. He knew he was qualified to be in charge...he just didn't feel like it.

"Hey, Francis," he said aloud, crouching down next to a green sea turtle with its nose poking out of the water. He fished a piece of lettuce out of the strainer and handed it down to the turtle. Francis chomped down on it, and Landon swore he saw the turtle smile. "Ah yes, the delectable leaf of lettuce," he said aloud in his best Gordon Ramsay impression. "Very impressive." The turtle waited expectantly and Landon handed over another piece of lettuce. "I can see we've got a winner," he grinned.

"You didn't use soap on that, did you?" The voice startled Landon, and he looked up to see a striking, tanned woman with straight red hair, standing with her arms crossed over by the entrance to the lagoon. She was sporting a pair of sunglasses, so he couldn't see her eyes, but he was willing to bet that she wasn't giving him a friendly look.

Landon frowned. "Um…no. We have a special wash we use to sanitize all of our produce here," he said. He glanced down at the lettuce in his hand. _Right_? _I didn't…._ He shook his head. _Knock it off, man, you've done this a million times on your own. You know how it works._ "I'm sorry, can I help you?"

"Angelique," the woman said, striding forward in a pair of heels. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Landon countered.

"Health inspector," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Were you not aware that Dr. Johnson had scheduled an inspection for today?"

"I-" Landon racked his brain, trying to recall if Dr. Johnson had said anything about an inspection while she was out. "I'm sorry, she must have forgotten to tell me," he said finally. "Can I show you around?"

"I don't know, _can_ you?" Angelique fired back. She looked disdainfully at the lettuce in his hands. "These turtles should be fed their natural prey."

Landon frowned. "Unfortunately, we don't have access to a large crop of sea grass here in Honolulu," he told her. "Lettuce is the best substitute."

The inspector looked down her nose at him. "Is it, now." Her tone said otherwise.

_Geez…what a witch._ He wondered what had happened to their usual guy. "Should we start with the lagoon, here, or would you prefer to inspect the interior of the building first?" Landon asked finally.

She spread her arms. "Since we're _out_ here," she said pointedly, as though it was completely obvious.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Landon flopped into a chair in the employee break room, mentally and physically exhausted. Angelique, the inspector, had made him move desks, lift chairs, all the while sounding less and less impressed with the facility, and more importantly, with him. She'd finally declared she'd had enough, and left for a lunch break, promising she'd be back for another round.

_Joy_.

There was a knock on the door, and Landon looked up to see Kealey Shepard, in denim shorts and a pink Storm Chargers tank top, in the doorway. "Hey," she said. "Mind if I…."

Landon gestured wearily to the chair across from him. "Be my guest," he shrugged. "Hopefully, that chair doesn't have any loose bolts and sits evenly on all four legs."

Kealey raised an eyebrow. "Uh…'kay. I don't think sitting in this chair's gonna kill me."

Landon rubbed a hand over his face. "Sorry, Kealey. It's been a day. We're under a health inspection right now, I'm a little paranoid."

"Yuck," Kealey said. "I know a little bit about your whole life being under the microscope…figuratively speaking of course."

"She's making me feel totally incompetent at my job," Landon complained. "Which is stupid-I know I'm good at my job."

"Maybe she's one of those alpha female types who's trying to overcompensate," Kealey offered. "Seen a few of those in my line of work." She leaned back in her chair, and couldn't help but tense a bit as her back rested against the back of the chair, but she leaned back without incident.

Landon noticed her hesitation, though. _Great_. "Anyway, um, what brings you here?" he asked, trying not to let her see how miserable he really was.

Kealey studied her fingernails for a second before replying, "I wanted to apologize. For, you know, being kind of a bitch lately. I'm not usually like that."

"I know," Landon said, and Kealey narrowed her eyes. "What I mean is, Nakoa's a fan of yours. He's told me and Emily both that you're acting a little out of character." He gave her a tired smile. "It's completely fair, considering what's happened in the past couple days. We all went from mild mannered average Joes and…Joettes?...to fighting off giant sea creatures from the Black Lagoon."

"Doesn't seem to bother you much," Kealey offered.

Landon snorted. "Then I'm good at hiding it. It's actually really freaking me out."

"You have an odd way of showing it, Fearless Leader."

"Yeah, well," Landon said bitterly, "I sure as hell don't feel like it. Maybe Nakoa wants the job, or Emily. Hell, you could probably do a better job. As I recall, you guys had to come save my ass at Diamond Head."

"Okay, I've only known you a couple days," Kealey began, slowly leaning forward to face him. "But I'm usually a pretty good judge of _character_-" she stressed the word, throwing it back in his face, "-and you….you seem kinda _off_ today. What the hell is wrong?"

Landon sighed. "I…look, here's the thing. Me and my dad, when I was a kid, we moved around a lot. Dad was a mechanic for a big oil company. Wherever they had something that needed fixing, my dad was their go-to guy." He ran a hand through his hair. "We moved a lot. Florida, Alaska, North Dakota, Louisiana…I changed schools a lot, I didn't have time to make friends. When I went off to college, I graduated early, simply because I didn't do anything other than go to classes."

Kealey gave a low whistle. "Landon…that sucks. I'm sorry. That's…that's not the ideal childhood or college experience for _anyone_."

Landon shrugged. "It's okay. When I got the job at AMRI, I finally had a place that I felt like I belonged to. I have a purpose here. But she-she's making me rethink _everything_, like I'm not good at my job. Like Dr. Johnson made the wrong call leaving me in charge."

Kealey, to his surprise, reached across the table and pounded on the tabletop, right in front of him. "You need to knock it off, Landon. This is _not_ you."

"How would _you_ know, Kealey? You've known me like what, 48 hours?"

"Long enough to know that this wallow in self-pity routine is a bunch of crap!" Kealey burst out. "This is a far cry from the guy who basically told us to get off our ass and fight a bunch of weird sea…things. That it was our job. That none of us asked for this, but we're all in this together."

She blinked, realization dawning. "That's it, isn't it. It's more than just this inspection, isn't it. It's 'cause of what I said the other night." When he didn't say anything, Kealey nodded in satisfaction. "Landon, I didn't mean to put pressure on you like that, okay? You're right, we're in this _together_. We wouldn't know half of what we know about these weird things that keep happening if it wasn't for you." She smiled. "We seriously need a guy like you around to help us figure all this out. Dr. Johnson wouldn't have picked you for the team if she didn't think you belonged on the team, whether you're the guy calling the shots or not. And I'm sure Emily and Nakoa think so too."

Just then, Angelique threw the breakroom door open, her eyes narrowing as she saw Kealey in the room. "I can see why this facility is in such bad shape," she said. "Perhaps, Landon, you could at least _pretend_ to care about the fact that the fate of the facility rests on my results today?"

"I was just leaving," Kealey cut in smoothly, with a glance at Angelique. She nodded to Landon. "Later." As she let the door close behind her, she heard the inspector say, "Now, where exactly _were_ we?" and frowned. Through the glass on the door, she could see Landon take a deep breath and let it out, some of the confidence she'd seen on his face start to falter. _What is this lady's deal_?

Outside, she dialed Emily Rice. "Em, it's Kealey. Hey, is Nakoa out of class for the day? Can you guys meet me at AMRI?" She glanced back at the doors. "Something's up."

* * *

Landon once again found himself outside, trailing behind Angelique's high heels as she continued to point out flaws in AMRI. He was a mess, emotionally. He was furious that this, this _woman_ was nitpicking every bit of AMRI, something he _knew_ was not as bad and not as much of a mess as Angelique was making it out to be. And part of him…part of him was questioning everything he knew about himself. Kealey's pep talk had been encouraging, but it was hard to believe it as Angelique continued to bash everything around him, and talking down to him like he was a child, and not a 22-year old man.

"Hey!" someone yelled. Landon turned to see who had cut off Angelique mid-tirade. Standing in the doorway were Kealey, Emily, and Nakoa. His teammates looked furious.

"Lay off," Nakoa said, coming forward, his voice low. "There's no need for that kind of talk," he told Angelique.

The woman eyed him warily. "And who are you, exactly?"

"We're his friends," Emily informed her staunchly. "Nobody gets to talk to our friend like that."

Kealey raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "So back off."

"Do you realize who you're dealing with?" Angelique faced the four young people with narrowed eyes.

"I can think of a few ideas," Nakoa offered.

Landon put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Nakoa." He stepped up between his friends and the inspector. "I think you need to leave. You can finish your inspection when our chief scientist returns. And you can bet I will be reporting you to your superior at your office."

The woman's eyes flashed. "That's not likely," she said, her voice becoming a low growl. "My superior is far from here, waiting for the moment to strike. She is superior to you mere humans. As am I."

With that pronunciation, she began to change. The red of her hair and pink in her suit began to meld together. The spikes on her heels began to run up the backs of her legs.

"Ho…ly…" Landon took a step back as Angelique transformed into something…monstrous. Bright pink. Spiky. Monstrous.

"Mr. Marine Biologist?" Emily spoke up. "Um….any ideas?"

Landon's mind was already working, even as the monster continued, "I have seen all I need to see to understand that you are far inferior to us in the Deep," the monster intoned. "And I shall report that weakness to Syrena, and you will be destroyed."

"We'll see who's inferior," Landon responded. To Emily, he said, "Snailfish. Some species have spikes like hers, highly developed sensory pores. They can be really resilient in some cases, especially the ones that live in the pressure of the Trench." His hand was reaching for his nanite shell. "But so are we." His eyes narrowed, and Landon pointed at the monstrous pink fish. "Go back and tell your _superior_ that we are also resilient. And whatever she sends at us, we'll be _ready_."

Landon turned to see his team take a step up behind him. "Go on," Kealey told him. "You've got this."

Landon looked to Emily and Nakoa, who both nodded at him in turn. He turned to face the monster. "Okay, then. _Ho'ololi!_" He felt his suit materialize, and he clenched an armored fist with a determined smile.

"This one's mine."

His team had confidence in him, which was all the power Landon would ever need. And that confidence in him would help him make the right calls, and he had a team to ask for help. _I can do this._

The cheers of his friends a few moments later proved that theory correct.

* * *

**Author's Note****: Snailfish aren't actually all that scary-looking. (I mean, maybe if there was a 7-foot tall pink spiky one staring you down they might be.) But they do live up to 5 miles underwater and some live in cold enough water that they've developed antifreeze properties. In short, they made the perfect spy to come gather intel. Thanks, National Geographic! ;)**


	6. Boys and Girls

**Chapter Five: _Boys and Girls and Monsters_**

"Hey, Em! Over here!"

Emily Rice spotted a familiar figure waving at her from across the mall atrium. She waved back, threading her way through the busy Saturday shopping crowd to where her little brother Jack was standing. She gave him a hug. "How's it going?" she asked him as they headed toward the food court.

"It goes," Jack shrugged. "Too much homework. Lots of pressure. Way too hot for practices."

"Sounds so rough to be a senior in high school," Emily teased him. "You want to swap homework and pressure sometime, I'll gladly switch you." _Especially with the new added pressure of being a Power Ranger_, she thought to herself. Jack asked her a question about one of her classes and she smiled. "Ecology 260? Don't even get me started…" She had no problems complaining about the toughest class on her schedule, all the way until they were standing in line for shaved ice at their favorite spot at the mall.

Jack elbowed her in the side, interrupting her diatribe about the two other students in her group project midterm. "Ow! What-" Her little brother wasn't looking at her; rather, he was looking at the white tiled floor, but gave Emily a not-so-subtle nod to look to her left.

Emily frowned and looked, but she didn't see anything except a gaggle of girls in short shorts and t-shirts proclaiming them members of Jack's high school. "What?" she asked Jack again.

"That's her," Jack said under his breath, refusing to look at anything in particular. The line moved forward and Emily had to shove her brother to keep their place.

"That's _who_? Jack, you're 18, this is ridiculous." Emily studied the four girls at the taco stand next to them.

"Gina," Jack muttered. "Tall, brown hair, glasses."

_Ahh…_This was starting to make more sense. The two of them ordered and Jack dragged his sister as far away from the shaved ice as he could. "I really like her, Em," Jack explained. "She's in my AP English class. She's super smart and she plays volleyball."

"Homecoming is pretty soon, isn't it?" Emily had a hard time keeping track of her schedule and her brother's, too many things happened all around the same time. "Do they still do the big bonfire thing? You should ask her to go."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll get right on that," he groaned. "Pretty sure she doesn't even know I exist."

"Then go over there and introduce yourself," Emily said. Jack reminded her so much of Nakoa. That was probably why she and Nakoa were such good friends. They were both great guys, but neither one of them had any self-confidence to speak of socially. They differed in that Jack was just shy, and Nakoa spent too much time in front of a screen.

"Yeah, no, I'm good," Jack said, and was saved from further pushing by his sister when they called their name to pick up their order. Emily did notice, however, when they started walking toward the bookstore, that Jack looked back more than once to see if Gina was still standing in line.

* * *

"What is it with guys?" Emily asked Kealey later. The two of them sat on the beach outside their beach house, watching the waves lick the sand.

Kealey laughed, rolling onto her stomach to even out her tan. "You'll have to be a _bit_ more specific, Em," she said. "'Cause that conversation could take us until you graduate!"

Emily relayed the events at the mall. "Like, how hard is it for them to just say what they're thinking?" she said.

Kealey tilted her sunglasses so she could look at Emily over the top of them. "Are we talking about Jack, or someone else?" she asked.

Emily choked on her soda. "I-what?"

The Pink Ranger grinned. "Oh come on, Em. What's the deal with you and Nakoa? You two seem pretty chummy. Anything happening there?"

Emily shook her head. "We've been friends since freshman orientation," she explained. "He's…we're…we're just friends."

Kealey scrolled idly through her phone. "For now," she shrugged.

"Kealey, between school and this whole being a Ranger thing, I definitely don't have time to even entertain the thought!" Emily protested.

"Okay, okay," Kealey said placatingly. "You guys'd be cute together, is all I'm saying." She rolled over and sat up in one movement, brushing sand off her legs. "I'm fried. See you inside!"

Emily buried her head in her arms. "Ugh." She heard footsteps crunching in the sand, looked up to see Landon coming down to where she was sitting.

"Yeah, she does tend to elicit that feeling," Landon said, plunking down next to Emily in the sand. "You okay?"

"Just peachy," Emily rolled her eyes, getting up and heading up toward the house.

Landon watched her brush past Kealey on the way up. Kealey was coming back his direction. "Forgot my shoes," she said.

"What's up with Emily?" Landon asked.

Kealey picked her flip flops out of the sand and brushed them off. "Oh, I think she's found the one thing she can't get answered by a book," she shrugged.

* * *

_Marianas Trench_

She felt she knew the humans better, now. She'd been following and listening to them as they sailed through her domain. Syrena glided through the darkness, letting her fingers drift through the smoke emitting from the vents at the bottom of the Trench The smoke was scalding, but she barely felt it.

One of her creatures jetted past her, the small, glowing light at its front the only giveaway it was coming. Syrena was drawn to the light, just its' prey was, reaching out a taloned finger and stroking it along the scales.

The colorful warriors had bested another of her creatures. It was frustrating, but Syrena knew that wars can take some time. _Perhaps_, she mused, _rather than my creatures continue to go to them…the warriors should come to me._

She had just the creature to do it.

* * *

Jack Rice shut his locker and threaded his way through the halls the following morning for his first class of the day. He found his desk in AP English and sat down. As he pulled out his books for the day he listened in on the conversation of the two girls across the aisle from him.

"…soooo cute."

"I know, right? I hope I see him later."

Jack rolled his eyes. _Girls_. All they saw were looks. He started copying the homework instructions on the board and tried to tune them back out.

It wasn't until the bell rang to switch classes that he realized.

Gina, who sat right behind him, wasn't in class.

* * *

Emily bobbed her head with the music in her earbuds as she pondered the essay question she should have been working on. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped, yanking her earbuds out as Nakoa held up his hands in surrender. "Wow. Sorry, Em. Didn't realize you were so in to it. That your essay for ECO260?"

She nodded, taking a breath. "You're done for the day, what are you doing on campus yet?" Emily asked Nakoa.

Her tall friend straddled the chair next to hers. "Landon's still at work and Kealey's out on the water…plus the WiFi at the beach house kind of sucks."

"Don't let Doc Johnson hear you say that," Emily told him. "So, you're here doing…."

Nakoa ducked his head, embarrassed. "Oh no you don't," Emily said. "Spill. You don't get to interrupt my study session without getting some kind of payback." She poked her pencil at him. "Spill."

Nakoa handed over his phone. A familiar blonde surfer was laughing into the camera, holding onto a pink surfboard. "_Seriously_." Emily rolled her eyes. "Nakoa, you _live_ with her! I'm pretty sure if you'd just ask Kealey, you could've come with her down to the water, you know."

"I-yeah, I know," Nakoa said, running a hand through his hair. "I…she…I just…"

It dawned on Emily then. Nakoa was more than a _fan_, he… "You _like_ Kealey, huh?" she asked him. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

"Maybe a little," Nakoa finally admitted, tucking his phone into the back of his shorts pocket. "I mean, she's funny, she's pretty…she's a total badass…"

"She's also your-_our_-teammate," Emily pointed out.

"Well, exactly!" Nakoa agreed. "Like, I dunno if it's okay to ask her out, 'cause like, we're all on the same team, and what if that throws off our team groove?"

The conversation was making Emily uncomfortable. She wasn't sure why, but her stomach felt like it was in knots. "Maybe you should ask Landon about all this," Emily suggested. She started packing up her laptop and textbook, and frowned when her phone lit up with her brother's picture. Feeling annoyed but not sure why, she was a little harsh when she answered, "Jack? What do you want?"

Nakoa looked at her, watched her facial expressions. "I'm sure it's fine, Jack. I wouldn't worry about it." She hung up.

"Brother troubles?" Nakoa asked her.

Emily shook her head. "No. The girl Jack likes wasn't in school today and nobody knew why she missed class."

"Probably just out sick or something," Nakoa guessed.

"That's what I thought." Emily ran a hand through her ponytail and zipped her backpack shut. "I think I'm gonna finish studying at home. See you there." She brushed past Nakoa and headed for the library exit.

"Okay," Nakoa said, to no one in particular, watching her go. "See ya."

* * *

The girls in Jack's AP English class were all abuzz the next morning when Jack got into the classroom. He sat down and pulled his things out, glancing up to see Tucker Gantz taking his seat ahead of him. "Hey, Rice," Tucker greeted him.

Jack nodded. "Tucker, how's it going?"

Tucker jerked a thumb at the group of girls standing by the entrance. One of them squealed and was immediately shushed by everyone else. The room went deathly quiet and then just as suddenly, the girls were whispering and giggling again. "Kinda ridiculous," Tucker rolled his eyes.

"What was that all about?" Jack asked him.

"Oh there's a guy here from some college on the mainland," Tucker said. "He's _sooo cute_!" he said in an exaggerated falsetto. "All the girls in my math class can't shut up about him."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Girls are weird," he said. Their teacher came in and shooed the girls to their seats. During attendance, Jack noticed that the two girls who normally sat across the aisle from him were both gone.

* * *

Landon grinned as Kealey added cayenne pepper to the group of spices already gathered on the kitchen counter. "You're speaking my language," he grinned. "Pretty sure my blood is at least 50/50 cayenne and garlic."

"Something smells good," Emily said, coming into the kitchen from downstairs. She flopped down in the bench seat next to Landon.

"How's the essay coming?" Landon asked her.

"If I didn't know my professor would run it through the plagiarism thing, I'd give up and just copy paste an article from _National Geographic_," Emily said. "Thank God there hasn't been any monster attacks in awhile, I'm having enough trouble trying to finish this stupid essay without that."

"That could be it's own Ecology thing," Nakoa pointed out, coming in from the living room. "Defeating Sea Creatures From the Black Lagoon- a Study by Emily Rice." He sat down in the chair across from her.

"Yeah, pretty sure we're supposed to be keeping all that under wraps," Emily countered.

Landon raised an eyebrow. "You okay, Em? You seem a little…tense."

Even Kealey had turned around from the stove, the only sound in the kitchen now the sizzling of whatever she'd put in the saucepan. "You're being kind of a bitch," Kealey didn't bother to sugarcoat it. She glanced at Landon with a shrug. "Takes one to know one."

Emily dropped her head. "I'm sorry, you guys," she apologized. "It's just, I'm trying to get this essay finished, my partners in my group aren't being any help, and my brother won't stop texting me that something is up at his school."

Landon waited, but Emily didn't elaborate further. "Hey, we're all under a lot of pressure right now," he told her. "Just remember, you've got people you can talk to about all this stuff. I took Ecology when I was in college, maybe I can look over what you have so far."

"And I can help with…other stuff," Kealey offered from the stove, adding strips of chicken to the pan. She gave Emily a meaningful look.

"What's all this about your brother?" Nakoa asked. "He called yesterday too, right?"

Emily glanced toward the ceiling. "He really likes this girl Gina in his AP English class, but she hasn't been at school for a couple days. And now he's claiming that there's two other girls who didn't show up for class this morning. He think something's up."

"Meningitis?" Kealey offered. "Kept a lot of girls in _my_ class out in high school…" Landon snickered.

"Did he say anything else?" Nakoa asked Emily.

"I dunno, I'm sure it's just high school drama," Emily said. "Apparently there's this really cute recruiter from some college on the Mainland, and all the girls are just like, fawning over him. Jack's probably just being insecure, right? That all these girls are paying attention to this obviously older guy?"

"What college?" Landon asked.

Emily scrolled back through her texts. "St. Maria's?" she read.

Nakoa popped out his phone, did some quick typing. "No results," he said, with a glance at Landon.

"Does Jack know anything else about this guy?" Landon asked.

Emily glanced between the two boys. "Wait…what are you saying?"

"No attacks in awhile, but these girls are going missing, and the guy's a complete poser?" Kealey spoke up from the stove. She looked at Emily. "Sounds sketch to me."

"Yeah, we should look into it," Landon agreed, looking at Emily. He grinned. "And I've got an idea…Shorty."

Emily shot him a Look.

* * *

"This is so weird," Jack muttered to his sister the next morning. The two of them walked down the halls headed for the study lounge.

"How do you think I feel?" Emily shot back, shouldering her backpack. "I didn't particularly _want_ to go back to high school."

"Well, for what it's worth," Jack said. "I'm glad you're here. I think it's _weird_ you're here…but I'm glad you're here." He pulled up short in the hallway, and pointed. "There he is."

Emily looked up. The girls were right, he _was_ pretty cute. He stood almost as tall as Landon, wearing a white polo shirt with a lightbulb. He had thick black hair and a deep tan. She squeezed Jack's hand. "Head to class, kiddo."

"What are you gonna do?"

Emily flashed a bright smile at the college recruiter. "Don't worry. I'll call you later."

Jack ducked into his classroom and Emily tucked her hair behind her ear and stepped up to the recruiter. "So…can I hear more about your school?"

* * *

Outside the school, Nakoa, Kealey and Landon watched from Landon's truck as Emily and the recruiter walked down the sidewalk in front of the school toward a nearby park. "He _is_ pretty cute," Kealey said.

"If we're right, he's also pretty dangerous," Nakoa countered, watching. "Come on Landon, let's go."

Landon shifted the truck into drive and inched slowly down the street.

* * *

"So do you offer any kind of tuition discounts since it's so far to move?" Emily was asking the recruiter, trying to keep her tone light. Her heart was pounding, and one hand was in her pocket clutched around the white nanite shell in her jeans pocket.

"Don't worry," the recruiter told her, giving her an assuring smile. "We take care of everything." Emily glanced behind her, looking for Landon's red Avalanche. She couldn't see it, but she hoped her team was there.

Ahead of them, Emily saw a maintenance shed for the park's groundskeeper, and her heart pounded faster. _This is it, I bet_. "Hey, um, I'm gonna be late for my next class," she stammered. "So, um, maybe I should…I should get back." She turned to go, but the recruiter reached out, grabbed her arm. "Hey! Let me go!"

"Why would I do that?" He gave her another bright smile. "You're bait!"

"Let _go!" _Emily yanked yard, but his grip was firm. He was opening the shed door, and Emily could see three figures inside among the equipment. Two blonde teenagers and a familiar-looking brunette. _Gina. And the other two missing girls._

_And me next!_

* * *

The Avalanche jerked as Landon threw it into park and the remaining Rangers got out, running into the park. "We've gotta find her," Kealey said. "Let's split up, we'll cover more ground." She hesitated and looked at Landon. "That is…I mean…"

He rolled his eyes. "Yep, great plan, good call, let's _go!_"

* * *

Emily felt her fingers clench around her shell. "I warned you to let me go," she grunted. "_Ho'ololi!"_ Her suit appeared and with a burst of energy, she pulled free of the recruiter and yanked him outside the shed. She shook her head. "Should've guessed that no news wasn't good news with you guys," she said.

"My Syrena wants you," the man said, though Emily noted he seemed less man now. His body arced and stretched, his mouth growing, teeth becoming pointier, glowing brighter. Emily gasped in horror. "Hey, I dunno if you guys have suited up yet, but now would be a _great_ time!" she yelled into her helmet.

The creature had finished changing, and now it looked at Emily. "I hope your friends do come," it told her. "Syrena asked for one, but I would be rewarded if I brought _all_ of you."

"Not gonna happen," Emily promised. Using the jets on her suit, she powered herself forward, throwing a punch into the creature's belly. It staggered, but Emily had to dive out of the way as it's jaw extended, trying to swallow her whole. She rolled out of the way of the sharp teeth and wished that Dr. Johnson was back from her trip so she could have her bladed fans.

"Holy crap," she heard someone say, saw Nakoa, Kealey, and Landon came running up, already morphed and ready. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Ugly?" Kealey offered, joining Emily and pulling her to her feet.

Something lashed out from the creature's head and the two girls jumped over it. Nakoa tried grabbing onto it but missed, and Landon launched himself into the air, pounding a foot into the side of it's head.  
"Anglerfish!" Landon explained breathlessly. "Uses that light on it's head to draw it's prey closer, like a lure! The jaws extend out so it can swallow things bigger than it is!"

"I'll give him something to chew on!" Emily yelled, launching herself off a tree and giving it a solid kick in the jaw. A few of the pointy teeth came loose.

"Em, if it wants girls so bad, let's give him a couple," Kealey said, running up next to her.

Emily nodded, her jaw set inside her helmet. "I'm game." With that, both girls used the suit jets, driving their booted feet into either side of the grotesque fish's jaw, breaking it. Landon and Nakoa followed a moment later with two uppercut punches that sent it flying into the air and dropping it to the ground, where it disintegrated, like all the others.

"You okay?" Nakoa asked, clapping Emily on the shoulder.

"Fine," Emily said. "The girls are in there. We should probably get them some help."

* * *

Jack Rice waited impatiently with his sister outside the school's front door a few days later, waiting for bus 13 to pull up. He tapped his foot, watching the door slide back and the students pile off.

"She was supposed to come back today," Jack muttered.

Emily smiled. "She'll be here," she reassured him. Almost as soon as she'd said it, she pointed to the bus. Gina stepped off, looking no worse for the wear. She gave Jack a push. "Go on, Romeo," she teased him. "Walk her to class."

She watched her little brother jog up to the pretty senior, ask her a question. A moment later, Jack had Gina's backpack on his shoulder and they were headed into the building, Jack flashing Emily a thumbs up on the way by.

She smiled.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. _Hey. Movie night tonight? –N_

Emily sighed. She still didn't know what to do about that one.


End file.
